OBJECT_IFY 139 is a cool lil art-object store located in Lower East Side, New York, and artist, curator, and entrepreneur Maria Candanoza is the one to blame. When asked by 1985 artist: How did the idea for Objectify 139 come about? Maria said: “Most of my friends were constantly creating art in their studios but it wasn't getting the chance to be seen. Sometimes you’re not ready for a show or you don’t have the opportunity to do a show, but it doesn't change the fact that you're still producing work all the time. There's just no outlet for it. The idea was to create an art/object store which was basically a place where people could showcase their work and have it for sale at affordable prices. We also have events once a month where we collaborate with different artists and every two months an artists curates a portion of the magazine/art book section of the store.”

And on the October 28th OBJECT_IFY 139 marked it’s first anniversary. For the occasion they asked the 20 artists that were in the shop last year when it opened, to contribute an object or print, to a limited edition box set "Objectify in a box", drawing inspiration from Marcel Duchamp's Boîte-en-valise.

The group of objects is very diverse and goes from a c-print by David Brandon Geeting to a Xerox print by Chad Moore, to a band-aid-bandana by Maia Ruth Lee. The boxes are in a limited edition of 100 and are selling for $85.

The best thing about OBJECT_IFY 139 is how affordable art is. Maria is really making sure that everyone can get a hold of a cool art piece and not for a price of their livers. She is creating a platform for new emerging artist to showcase their work and she is also giving us - the consumers, the opportunity to actually afford it.